Tours need leaders

Oak Island | On instruction from its tour guide, a small group - crowded on the second landing of the Oak Island Lighthouse - looked straight up to the rotating beacon above. It was now or never.

Friends of the Oak Island Lighthouse volunteers always offer tourists the chance to turn back once they peer inside the unique 158-foot lighthouse. This is no traditional lighthouse with a spiral staircase. Instead, a journey to the top means maneuvering steep ships ladders.

But the group of adults decided to brave it. The group's guide, Bob Ahlers, stopped at each of the eight levels between ladders to give a bit of history and to allow for a breather.

"Everybody OK?" he asked. "Going down, physically, is much easier, but mentally much harder," he said as they ventured to the top.

Friends of the Oak Island Lighthouse opened the fairly young lighthouse for general tours to the second floor for the first time May 30. But a trip to the top is special. Tourists must book it well in advance, wear tennis shoes and be at least 10 years old and 5 feet tall.

"It's quite a climb," Lynda Smith, FOIL chairwoman said.

Before this tour group made its climb to the top, Smith was trying to convince Bob Schaffran, of Caswell Beach, to become a volunteer.

"I'm going to see if I can make it to the top first," he said, adding this was his first time climbing any lighthouse.

Smith said unless the organization can get more volunteers, these unique tours might not last through the summer.

"It's a serious issue," she said, adding there are no requirements for volunteers who can be from as far away as Wilmington.

Even though FOIL has advertised little, 150 people showed up for general tours June 13, Smith said.

"That's just overwhelming," she added. She said the group needs at least four volunteers for the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday shifts for tours to the second floor. She also gets about 20 e-mails a day from people who want a tour to the top.

After climbing in the heat, Thursday's first group enjoyed a cool breeze as the climbers filed out onto the balcony.

"I love it. This is beautiful," Schaffran said, looking out to the ocean and islands below.

He added he is thrilled the organization has opened the national historic place for tours.

"It was a landmark that you just rode by and wondered, 'wow, this is pretty neat,'●" he said.

Now Schaffran is contemplating volunteering but said his time might be limited because he travels for work.

After they inhaled some fresh air, took in the view and waved to friends below, it was time for the downward march.

"I'm afraid of heights. I can't believe I'm doing this," Angela Bates, of Winston-Salem, said as she headed down.

But with a little perseverance and some steady, slow movements, she made it.

Shelby Sebens: 755-7963

shelby.sebens@starnewsonline.com